InDesign 2025 is moving 2 out of 900 images about a quarter inch to the right, over and over again.

[Lavish_Hummingbird6386]

I'm designing a book and can not share screenshots of the specific images but InDesign is repeatedly moving just two specific images to the right about a quarter of an inch. Both images are on the left hand page, and align-right with the gutter/page edge. I have never experienced this before and I've been designing books for over 15 years with InDesign. I place them, save the document, and then later when scrolling past, I see they have moved again. I've resaved the images as new files and replaced them, and those same images move to the right again. I noted the X value for the placement of the image, and it still says the same value in the wrong and correct placement, which is insane. 

Unrelated or maybe related, there are often visual glitches in InDesign that only started happening in the last few versions. Weird that the software has gotten more buggy and worse. These occur when switching between preview views using the W key. I know this is not going to be resolved through community suggestions but I just wanted to put this out there because I feel crazy that these huge, disruptive bugs and glitches are happening and I just wanted someone else out there to feel slightly less crazy when they go searching for answers and see that something similar is happening to someone else.

[Eugene Tyson]

It's certainly not usual. 

What version of Indesign? What is your version of OS? 

Do you use 3rd party plugins or any other 3rd party software, vpn, magnet or anything else that might cause issues (known to cause issues in the past). 

For one as it's a large book the saving is really reimportant, do you just hit Save or do you use File>Save As and create a new version from time to time. 

It's alsow worth noting as well as Save As - it can sometimes help when you notice things going strange is to use File>Export and choose IDML. 
Open that and see if the issue persists. 

Other things like resetting your indesign preferences can also help with oddities. 

And last resort is a complete reinstall with Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool. 

[Eugene Tyson]

Oh and as it's a large book - maybe it's time to split into a few files and use the InDesign Book feature.

Keeping file sizes down for large books could help with stability.

[Lavish_Hummingbird6386]

I appreciate you taking the time to respond. It is InDesign 20.4.1 on a Mac Studio Apple M1 Max chip running OS Sequoia 15.5 (24F74).

I do design 240 page and longer books in one file often, but this hasn't been a problem before. I both Save and Save As multiple backup versions as I go, usualy ending up with 20-40 versions by the end. I haven't adjusted preferences or added any plugins. It is just weird stuff happening occasionally. 

[Lavish_Hummingbird6386]

The book feature does sound like a smart approach for some books. Personally I push and pull my text and images in the design and need access to all 240 pages at once for my layout process and the style of books I am making. It is occuring to me that my currently 354 MB and growing .indd file might seem too large to some users out there.

[Eugene Tyson]

I don't know why your files are so large, 350mb+ is quite unusual, are you embedding your images or something? 

I do have some files that size due to images being embedded but these are only a few pages (don't ask). 

And @leo.r  makes a good point about the position in the final PDF - is it really moving in InDesign or just a glitch? I get that you then waiting to make a PDF to see if it's actually moved- you don't want to see things move in the layout before exporting.

And another good point from @leo.r about an object style. I'm wondering if there is not an object style perhaps creating a style that has the X Y coordinates would be more beneficial? 

And how are the images placed there - are they anchored or floating on the page?

[leo.r]

In addition to other suggestions:

Is it possible that you have an object style applied to these images where some unusual positioning options are specified?

Also, how are the images positioned in exported PDF?

[Kasyan Servetsky]

I experienced a similar problem caused by an InDesign bug. I described it here.